Eastlake begins play in the Little League World Series at noon (PDT) Friday, facing a team from Grosse Point, Mich. The game will be televised by ESPN.

Bulla Graft was Park View’s slugging second baseman. Now he’s a junior at The Bishop’s School where he stars in football and baseball.

“Basically,” said Graft, “I’d tell ’em to stay humble. Don’t let anything get to your head. Just go play baseball like they’ve been playing.”

Graft admits maintaining humility wasn’t always easy during the two-week stay in South Williamsport, where players were secluded from their families, living in dorms with the other teams.

Nicknamed the Blue Bombers because they wore baby-blue uniforms and bashed home runs like the ’27 Yankees, the Park View players were treated like rock stars at the tournament.

“Walking into the rec room (at the Little League grounds), all the teams would be playing video games,” said Luke Ramirez, Park View’s man-child star, who was 6-foot-2, 205 pounds at 13. “Then we’d go in there and they’d be in awe of us.”

Ramirez, now 6-3, 215, remembers a player from Curacao would stop him, imitate his stance, then pantomime his home run routine, complete with the bat flip and trot to first base.

Like all the teams in South Williamsport, Park View players were treated to expensive freebies - $300 aluminum bats, $100 cleats, bat bags and batting gloves.

They were interviewed by ESPN and whisked away after games in a van back to their dorms.

“All the games (Eastlake) played leading up to this point, they’ll be ready for the challenge,” Ramirez said. “The emotional part is the biggest challenge, how they handle all the glitz and glamour.”

Park View players tip their caps to former coaches Ric Ramirez, Luke’s father, and Oscar Castro for keeping them focused.

At South Williamsport, the coaches limited the players’ cell phone use to about 30 minutes a night, collecting the phones before the players went to bed. The coaches didn’t allow the team to watch ESPN, lest the team get caught up in the attention.